I Can't Believe It's Not Heroin!: Difference between revisions

Sometimes a completely mundane substance is treated [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|as if it had psychedelic effects and was highly addictive]].

* [[Drunk Onon Milk]], for drunkenness;

* [[Frothy Mugs of Water]], where this happens because, originally, it ''was'' heroin, but was censored to a more [[G -Rated Drug]];

** [[The Dark Side]]: ''Evil'' is a drug.

* [[G -Rated Drug]], where a [[Moral Guardians|Moral Guardian]] approved "soft" drug's effects are ''vastly'' exaggerated to fit a storyline that would otherwise require harder drugs to work.

* [[High Onon Catnip]] - when a catlike character [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|ingests catnip]]

* [[Toad Licking]], where a character gets high by [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|licking toads]].

{{examples|Examples:}}

{{quote| [[Shout -Out|"Ridiculous Lucky Captain Rabbit King! Lucky Captain Rabbit King Nuggets are for the youth!"]]}}

* A UK advert for "Burger King" featuring [[The Burger King (Advertising)|The Burger King]] has his burgers being treated this way, with the King acting as a man's imaginary friend and holding a burger all throughout his day, until he manages to eat one at Burger King.

* Parodied in ''[[Welcome to The NHK]]'', where Misaki, jealous of Satou's love for an older, hard drug-using woman, tries to overdose... on mints.

** Like so many things in this series, it manages to be incredibly tragic and absolutely hilarious at the same time.

* If [[Ah! My Goddess (Manga)|Belldandy]] drinks even just a sip of cola, she gets drunk. On the other hand, real alcohol has no effect on her.

* Uncle Ump's Umpty Candy is outlawed in [[Judge Dredd|Mega-City One]] as it's addictive. There's no narcotic in it-- itit—it's ''just that good.''

{{quote| '''Mary Violet''': AAAGH! The bubbles! The bubbles are exploding in my BRAIN!<br />

** This is a reference to the rather horrible stereotypes about the inhabitants of slums such as the actual location where ''District 9'' was shot.

* The newcomers in ''[[Alien Nation (TV series)|Alien Nation]]'' get drunk on sour milk.

* A peach does the job and knocks Sarah into a fever dream in ''[[Labyrinth (Film)|Labyrinth]]''. ([[The Nostalgia Chick|A sexy fever dream?]])

* In ''[[The Dresden Files (Literature)|The Dresden Files]]'', the Little Folk (pixies) love pizza with a passion that is not rivaled by any in this world. Watching them devour it has been variously compared to ''[[Jaws (Filmfilm)|Jaws]]'' and a school of piranhas. Harry Dresden pays them in pizza and in return they provide him with whatever services he asks of them. As Sanya puts it:

{{quote| "You are a drug dealer. To tiny fairies. For shame."}}

* In [[Harry Turtledove]]'s ''[[World WarWorldwar]]'' series, the spice ginger has an addictive effect on the reptilian Race.

* On ''[[Being Human (TVUK)|Being Human]]'', blood is like drugs for vampires.

* In ''[[First Wave (TV)|First Wave]]'', Cade literally rubs some salt in Joshua's wounds; he proceeds to get all dreamy about how nice Earth is and give the reasoning for his soon-to-be revealed [[Heel Face Turn]]. Cade is shocked at his state of mind, realizing salt is their heroin. In a later episode, we even see a Gua hunting down another in a back alley, where he has been hanging out with human heroin junkies feeding his addiction to salt.

* In ''[[Thirty Rock (TV)|30 Rock]]'', Kenneth the Page "Rides the brown serpent" when a cappuccino machine is introduced to his desk.

* Bill's 'lemon sherbet' in the early seasons of ''[[The Goodies (TV)|The Goodies]]'', even to the extent of a policeman asking what he was on.

* In ''[[Malcolm in Thethe Middle]]'', Malcolm's obsession with fixing up a junker he bought is played like a substance addiction. He raids his savings for automotive parts, his grades drop because of all the time he's spending on the car, and his brother holds an intervention, complete with a guy from the AAA.

* One of the characters in ''[[The Legend of Dick and Dom (TV)|The Legend of Dick and Dom]]'' has a [[Reset Button|one-episode]] addiction to gingerbread; we don't see her actually intoxicated on it, but she hoards it, denies she has a problem, gets withdrawal symptoms when her friends take her stash away, [[Sanity Slippage|obsessively hunts for more]] and finally starts [[Hallucinations|seeing people as giant gingerbread men]] and [[Cute and Psycho|dreamily]] [[I'm a Humanitarian|chewing on them]].

* Josh Ramsey of Marianas Trench is infamous for the [https://web.archive.org/web/20150910052243/http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-snc4/276892_208043005888476_5096377_n.jpg insane amounts of Coke Zero, never plain and certainly not diet, that he drinks]

* Potatoes, as outlined in "[["Weird Al" Yankovic|Addicted to Spuds]]" (and in its [[The Weird Al Effect|original]] version, "Addicted to Love", [[Captain Obvious|love]]).

{{quote| It's a game, that's what I tell myself<br />

But it has so much play, I think I might need help<br />

I'm always late for class and I got fired too<br />

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsJpyhBjW7I Sugar Rush] by Anthony and Those Other Guys lives on this trope.

* ''[[EarthboundEarthBound]]''. Magic Cake. 'Nuff said.

* The moai heads in the ''[[The Adventures of Sam and& Max: Freelance Police (Video Game)|Sam and Max Freelance Police]]'' game "Moai Better Blues" get...well... [[A Worldwide Punomenon|stoned on basalt]].

* Soda Popinski in ''[[Punch -Out!!]]''. A single drop from his bottle causes him to spring up from being knocked down, get red and steamy and release a barrage of uppercuts.

* In the background fiction of ''[[Sword of the Stars]]'', Hivers find cheese intoxicating.

{{quote| "The Queen may one day lose her taste for peace, but her children will never lose their taste for cheese."}}

* In ''[[Chibi -Robo!]]'', Jenny's stuffed toy bear Sunshine goes absolutely ''crazy'' for flower nectar, to the point where it resembles cocaine addiction complete with withdrawals, hyperactivity, and mood swings.

* [[YoshisYoshi's Island (Video Game)|Touch Fuzzy, Get Dizzy]].

* [[Bland -Name Product|Nuka Cola]] in ''[[Fallout]]'' is addictive for some reason.

* In Xanauzumaki's ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time]]'' abridged series, magic beans are morphed into this:

{{quote| '''Gwynn:''' Why can't my friends abuse hardcore drugs like normal people?}}

* ''[[Instant Classic]]'' has pop (especially diet pop) as a standard [[G -Rated Drug]], with the worker at the movie theater concession stand acting as a bartender.

* The characters in ''[[Calamities Of Nature]]'' experiment with the [https://web.archive.org/web/20130804021652/http://www.calamitiesofnature.com/archive/?c=174 slurpee bong].

* In ''[[Nip and Tuck]]'', the [[Show Within a Show]] ''Rebel Cry'' features [https://web.archive.org/web/20120512215128/http://www.rhjunior.com/NT/00700.html bans on caffeine and white sugar.]

{{quote| '''Rocky:''' I CAN SEE ETERNITY.}}

* Subverted in the first strip of [[DrugsandDrugs Kissesand (Webcomic)Kisses|Drugsand Kisses]], where the characters obtain a stock cube off their local dealer, only to find to their dismay that it has been partially cut with cannabis resin

* A three-part episode of ''[[Awesome Video Games (Web Video)|Awesome Video Games]]'' has Ace and Chet's cousin Lester come over, essentially acting like a drug dealer, and introduces them to "codes" via the Game Genie for their NES. Side effects include smoke coming out of their NES, a ''really'' messed up [[Super Mario Bros.]], psychedelic hallucinations, and getting high...scores.

{{quote| Let's all smoke crack, instead!}}

* In ''[[Jackie Chan Adventures (Animation)|Jackie Chan Adventures]]'', Jackie gets bitten by a poisonous snake, leaving him very thirsty and disoriented during a fight against the [[Terrible Trio]]... a perfect set-up for a [[Frothy Mugs of Water|family-friendly]] [[Shout -Out]] to his movie ''Legend of Drunken Master''. They do this again later, with him getting the bends.

*** Yet another episode had Chester The Cheetah snorting up ground up Cheetos like cocaine while listening to Rush and proclaiming "there is no fucking drummer better than [[Rush|Neil Peart]]!" before smashing a glass table with his fist.

* In the ''[[SpongebobSpongeBob SquarePants]]'' movie, ''ice cream'' was used to make Spongebob and Patrick drunk, complete with 5 o'clock shadow.

* When Mac from ''[[FostersFoster's Home for Imaginary Friends]]'' goes into a sugar rush, he acts hyper, selfish and irresponsible, as well as willing to do anything for more. The aftermath is treated like a hangover.

* One segment of ''[[The Simpsons]]'' episode "Love, Springfieldian Style" parodies the [[The Sex Pistols (Music)|Sid Vicious]] biopic ''[[Sid And Nancy]]'', with Nelson as Sid Vicious and Lisa as Nancy Spungen. Since both characters are kids, they use chocolate instead of heroin (they freebase it over spoons, snort it like cocaine, and immediately flush it down the toilet when the police show up). The episode even has a deliberately [[Anvilicious]] "Only losers put chocolate in their bodies!" speech.

** ''[[The Simpsons]]'' does the not-really-a-drug thing [https://web.archive.org/web/20130528004218/http://www.gettingit.com/article/671 repeatedly]: for example, Bart and Milhouse's syrup-only Squishee, or Lisa drinking the "water" on the Little Land of Duff ride.

{{quote| '''Krusty''': "All this does is get me to normal."}}

* In the ''[[South Park]]'', episode "Major Boobage", where the concentrated urine that male cats spray in the presence of other male cats gets people high. This causes hallucinations of a fantasy world based on ''[[Heavy Metal (Animationanimation)|Heavy Metal]],'' where almost everything looks like breasts. {{spoiler|At the end of the episode, Kenny has rid himself of his addiction to cat urine, and is shown enjoying life. As he smells some flowers, Stan comments that he is getting high on life. When Kenny begins frantically snorting the flowers, Stan notes, worriedly, that he's getting ''really'' high on life.}}

** In [[Transformers Generation One1|the original series]], episode "Microbots", the Deceptions "over-energized" on Energon and acted drunk.

* An episode of ''[[DextersDexter's Laboratory]]'' had a "flour" smuggling ring. They even used tacky puns:

{{quote| Main Evil Guy: Gentlemen, we are about to make a lot of bread.<br />

* ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]'' treats root beer as regular beer, complete with age restrictions, prohibition-era-style speakeasies that serve it, and kids drinking it at keg parties.

** There's also the episode Operation: L.I.C.O.R.I.C.E. where Numbah 5 and Black John Licorice have an all-out drinkin match [[Duel to Thethe Death|to the death]]! Did I mention that the drinks of choice were [[Frothy Mugs of Water|frothy mugs of PURE SUGAR]]?! To the death, indeed... of your blood-sugar level, that is!

* Monterey Jack in ''[[Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (Animationanimation)|Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers]]'' has an ongoing addiction to cheese and immediately goes into a bizarre trance whenever he sees or smells it (it's one of the show's [[Running Gag|running gags]]), then goes after it, unaware of humans (or anthropomorphic animals) trying to capture him. It's the center of the plot in "Mind Your Cheese and Q's" (probably the only 1980s-1990s "addiction episode" that wasn't [[Anvilicious]], as {{spoiler|Monterey Jack immediately breaks his promise not to overindulge in cheese ever again and the other members accept it}}), when he tries to give it up.

* Chocolate Boy on ''[[Hey Arnold!]]'' gets his name from his massive addiction to chocolate, which he often acts like someone who is addicted to crack.

* In the ''[[Sam and Max Freelance Police (Animationanimation)|Sam and Max Freelance Police]]'' cartoon, there were two separate references to a character spending a portion of their life in a hallucinatory daze after eating a bad cheese sandwich.

* In one ''[[Teen Titans (Animationanimation)|Teen Titans]]'' episode, Cyborg's dependency on a new [[G -Rated Drug|Processor]] was treated like a drug addiction.

* In the "Over a Barrel" episode of ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' there's a saloon called "The Salt Lick" that apparently serves... [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|salt licks]], judging from the bartender's comment when he tossed an apparent drunk out.

* Subverted by ''[[The Looney Tunes Show]]''. When Bugs Bunny starts drinking the soft-drink Spargle, he becomes incredibly manic and goes crazy trying to get more when his stash runs out. But it turns out Spargle's not just a soft-drink; at the end of the episode, the makers of Spargle get arrested for secretly putting "[[G -Rated Drug|dangerous, highly addictive chemicals]]" in their product.

* The legend of [http[wikipedia://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bananadine |bananadine.]] Popularized by the Anarchist Cookbook, this drug was allegedly extracted from banana peels. Unfortunately for people looking to get an easy, legal high, researchers at NYU found that banana peels had no intoxicating chemicals. (They have, however, been known to cause severe headaches when smoked.) This hasn't stopped the urban legend from persisting to this day.

*** [[The Beatles (Musicband)|The Beatles]]' "Savoy Truffle" was George Harrison's [[Take That]] to Clapton's sugar jones ("Good News" is a UK brand of chocolates). The increasingly-potent [[Nightmare Fuel]] sounds realistically enough like a bad trip to the dentist: but it's difficult not to wonder whether some other sort of white powder was being referenced, covertly.

* Nutmeg is a dissociative hallucinogen, like DXM (which is found in some cough syrup) or datura; it tends to produce solid, realistic, and unpleasant hallucinations indistinguishable from reality. Unlike other drugs, there are very few habitual users - almost nobody who tries nutmeg once ever wants to do it again, even if they enjoy the more "mellow" kinds of hallucinogens, plus, you have to eat several heaping spoonfuls of the stuff to make it work, and even then it can cause difficulty urinating, nausea, cottonmouth, and, most of all, [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|eating all that nutmeg at once tastes pretty bad.]]

** Also love (and, for the more cynical, infatuation). Increased heart rate, lessened coherence and judgemental ability, and dangerous withdrawals? [[I Can't Believe ItsIt's Not Heroin]]!!

* [[World of Warcraft]]. There's a reason why they call it "Warcrack". By the same token, a lot of things on the [[Crack Isis Cheaper]] page.

*** In Korea, it's [[StarcraftStarCraft]].

** [[Ever QuestEverQuest|EverCrack]]

** [[Sid MeiersMeier's Alpha Centauri]] or, as appropriately-initialed [[Sid MeiersMeier's Alpha Centauri|SMAC]].

* [[TV Tropes Wiki]], see [[TV Tropes Will Ruin Your Life]] and [[TV Tropes Ruined Your Life]] for examples.

*** Also, some people lack certain enzymes in their liver that are required to metabolize certain drugs/medications at a normal rate, and thus the drug will build up in their system to a higher level than normal, and will remain active for much longer. This is similar to the "red flush" that a percentage of Asian-descent experience when consuming even a relatively small amount of alcohol. Tolerance also plays a significant role, in that while say one 5mg5&nbsp;mg oxycodone tablet may produce significant effects in someone who has never taken any opiates before (and ~50-90mg50–90&nbsp;mg could be potentially fatal), most people who are on opiate medications long-term (chronic pain, cancer, etc) develop tolerance to where they're taking as much as, if not more than, 80mg80&nbsp;mg of oxycodone 4-6 times per day (close to 500mg500&nbsp;mg daily, 100x the dose of an opiate-naive patient). Same goes for many other medications, and it's also prevalent in addiction.

* Capsaicin, the active ingredient in hot chili peppers, can make you euphoric, if eaten in enough quantity, as it causes the body to release endorphins. The same principle lends a degree of addictivity to strenuous exercise ("runner's high") and even activities that would seem unpleasant, like [[Self -Harm|cutting oneself]].

[[Category:I Cant Believe Its Not Heroin{{PAGENAME}}]]